East Londonderry (UK Parliament constituency)

East Londonderry
constituency
Unknown parliament UK.
Boundary of East Londonderry in Northern Ireland 1995-2008.
Districts of Northern Ireland	Coleraine, Limavady
Electorate	65,233 (March 2011)
Current constituency
Created	1983 (1983)
Member of Parliament / Assembly member	Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist)
Number of members	One
Created from	Londonderry
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	Northern Ireland

East Londonderry is a Parliamentary Constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.

Contents 1 Boundaries 1.1 Proposed boundary changes 2 History 3 Members of Parliament 4 Elections 5 References 6 See also

Boundaries

The seat was created in boundary changes in 1983, as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17, and was predominantly made up from the old Londonderry constituency. From further revisions in 1995 (when it lost parts of the district of Magherafelt to the Mid Ulster constituency), and until the 2008 revision, it covered exactly the same area as the districts of Coleraine and Limavady. The inclusion of all of Coleraine Borough means that part of the East Londonderry constituency is actually in County Antrim.

For the United Kingdom general election, 2010 the East Londonderry constituency was formed by the following local government areas, as confirmed by the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Constituencies Order.^[1]

• The entire local government districts of Limavady and Coleraine.
• Banagher, and Claudy, from the Derry district.

Proposed boundary changes

The current Boundary Commission, which must complete its work by October 2013, has suggested replacing the constituency with a new 'Glenshane' seat, which will gain Magherafelt and lose Coleraine.^[2][3].

History

The constituency has a unionist majority, though in many elections nationalists have polled close to 35% of the vote. The main interest in elections has been the contest between the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party. The UUP were normally ahead of the DUP until the 2001 general election when the DUP finally overtook them.

The 2001 election was seen at a province wide level as a battle over the Belfast Agreement with the DUP opposed to it and most of the UUP in favour, however ironically this situation was seemingly reversed in East Londonderry, where the sitting Ulster Unionist MP, William Ross, was completely opposed to all involvement with the Agreement and its institutions, whilst the DUP candidate, Gregory Campbell, was a minister in the Executive set up by the Agreement. Many commentators joked that the DUP's gain meant that East Londonderry now had a more pro-Agreement MP than before.

For the history of the equivalent constituency prior to 1983, please see Londonderry (UK Parliament constituency).

Members of Parliament

The Member of Parliament since the 2001 general election is Gregory Campbell of the Democratic Unionist Party. In that election he defeated William Ross of the Ulster Unionist Party who had represented East Londonderry since 1983 and its predecessor seat of Londonderry between 1974 and 1983.

Election		Member[4]	Party
	1983	William Ross	Ulster Unionist
	2001	Gregory Campbell	Democratic Unionist

Elections

General Election 2010: East Londonderry[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic Unionist	Gregory Campbell	12,097	34.6	-6.3
	Sinn Féin	Cathal Ó hOisín	6,742	19.3	+1.9
	Conservatives and Unionists	Lesley Macaulay	6,218	17.8	-1.9
	SDLP	Thomas Conway	5,399	15.4	-3.9
	Traditional Unionist Voice	William Ross	2,572	7.4	+7.4
	Alliance	Barney Fitzpatrick	1,922	5.5	+3.1
Majority			5,355	15.3
Turnout			34,950	55.3	-8.4
	Democratic Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 2005: East Londonderry
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic Unionist	Gregory Campbell	15,225	42.9	+10.8
	Ulster Unionist	David McClarty	7,498	21.1	-6.3
	SDLP	John Dallat	6,077	17.1	-3.7
	Sinn Féin	Billy Leonard	5,709	16.1	+0.5
	Alliance	Yvonne Boyle	924	2.6	-1.5
	Independent	Malcolm Samuel	71	0.2	N/A
Majority			7,727	21.8
Turnout			35,504	60.3	-5.9
	Democratic Unionist hold		Swing	+8.5

General Election 2001: East Londonderry
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic Unionist	Gregory Campbell	12,813	32.1	+6.5
	Ulster Unionist	William Ross	10,912	27.4	-8.2
	SDLP	John Dallat	8,298	20.8	-0.9
	Sinn Féin	Francie Brolly	6,221	15.6	+6.5
	Alliance	Yvonne Boyle	1,625	4.1	-2.3
Majority			1,901	4.7
Turnout			39,869	66.2	+1.4
	Democratic Unionist gain from Ulster Unionist		Swing

General Election 1997: East Londonderry
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	William Ross	13,558	36.0	-29.26
	Democratic Unionist	Gregory Campbell	9,767	26.0	+25.6
	SDLP	Arthur Doherty	8,273	22.0	+1.83
	Sinn Féin	Malachy O'Kane	3,463	9.0	+5.59
	Alliance	Yvonne Boyle	2,427	6.0	-0.94
	Conservative	James Holmes	436	1.0	-2.41
	Natural Law	Clare Gallen	100	0.26	N/A
	National Democrats	Ian Anderson	81	0.21	N/A
Majority			3,794	10.0	-25.2
Turnout			38,102	64.77	-5.03
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing	-23.8

1997 changes are compared to the notional figures from 1992^[6]

Notional 1992 UK General Election Result : East Londonderry
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	N/A	23,287	64.9	N/A
	SDLP	N/A	7,134	19.9	N/A
	Alliance	N/A	2,634	7.3	N/A
	Conservative	N/A	1,589	4.4	N/A
	Sinn Féin	N/A	1,261	3.5	N/A
Majority			16,153	45.0	N/A

General Election 1992: East Londonderry
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	William Ross	30,370	57.6
	SDLP	Arthur Doherty	11,843	22.4
	Sinn Féin	Pauline Davey-Kennedy	5,320	10.1
	Alliance	Paddy McGowan	3,613	6.8
	Conservative	Alan Elder	1,589	3.0	N/A
Majority			18,527	35.2
Turnout			52,735	69.8	+0.7
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1987: East Londonderry
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	William Ross	29,532	60.5
	SDLP	Arthur Doherty	9,375	19.2
	Sinn Féin	John Davey	5,464	11.2
	Alliance	Paddy McGowan	3,237	6.6
	Workers' Party	Francie Donnelly	935	1.9
	Ecology	Malcolm Samuel	281	0.6	N/A
Majority			20,157	35.2
Turnout			48,824	68.7
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing

East Londonderry by-election, 1986
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	William Ross	30,922	93.9	+ 56.0
	"For the Anglo-Irish Agreement"	"Peter Barry"	2,001	6.1	N/A
Majority			28,921	87.8	+ 73.7
Turnout			32,923	46.8	- 29.5
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 1983: East Londonderry
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ulster Unionist	William Ross	19,469	37.9	N/A
	Democratic Unionist	James McClure	12,207	23.8	N/A
	SDLP	Arthur Doherty	9,397	18.3	N/A
	Sinn Féin	John Davey	7,073	13.8	N/A
	Alliance	Martha McGrath	2,401	4.7	N/A
	Workers' Party	Francie Donnelly	819	1.6	N/A
Majority			7,262	14.1	N/A
Turnout			51,366	76.3	N/A
	Ulster Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

References

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland

Constituencies in Northern Ireland (18) DUP (8) Belfast North East Antrim East Londonderry Lagan Valley North Antrim South Antrim Strangford Upper Bann Sinn Féin (5) Belfast West Fermanagh and South Tyrone Mid Ulster Newry and Armagh West Tyrone SDLP (3) Belfast South Foyle South Down Alliance (1) Belfast East Independent (1) North Down Northern Ireland European constituency Sinn Féin (1 seat) DUP (1 seat) UUP (1 seat)